Nourishment for your soul

Strong Foundations – Believe When You Pray

Believe When You Pray

Remember Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” According to this verse, the moment that we have the things that we believe for, is the very moment that we pray. What confuses some people in their confession are times when the manifestation doesn’t happen immediately. We must, however, come to the understanding that the moment we prayed is the moment that we received it. Our faith’s confession must be present tense.

Faith in the Present

Hebrews chapter 11 contains another key to this idea in verse 6. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Notice the tense of this verse. God is, and He is a rewarder. “Is” here is used in the present tense. Faith must believe that God is (present tense) and that He is (present tense) rewarding those who believe. Your faith must be in the now, when you pray. It can’t be put off to the future or back to the past. We must have a current, presently abiding faith in order for that faith to really produce what we are believing for.

In John 15:7, Jesus said it this way, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Notice again the tense of the statement, it will be done when you ask for what you wish.

Now Faith

It’s really about believing God and taking Him at His word. If my son asks me to take him to the store to buy him some ice-cream and I say yes, my word is all the guarantee that he needs to know that ice cream is his. In the same way we should know when we ask God for something that His promises are “yes and amen”. In other words, when we ask, His Word is our guarantee and all we need to know that it is ours. Just like my son who doesn’t have the manifestation of ice cream in his hand, yet knows that it is his even before we get to the store, we should know that the promises of God are ours even before we see the manifestations of them.

This is what I call “Now Faith”. It’s when we believe that we receive when we pray. It’s a foundational truth we must have and maintain in order to live victorious Christian lives.